Comments on the Church Age Book Bro. Lee Vayle - November 25, 1989 1. They never left home. I kind of think they think the same way about us, and I was talking to Bro. Terry, I said, “I wish I could feel the same way about you but, but look where you live.” [laughter] It’s not that we don’t feel that way, because when the Edmonton folks are here we are still home. And I know that when they are here, they're still home. So, we are home-loving folks which means we are like Abraham, you know Abraham was given a little piece of land. And Jesus said, “God wouldn’t even let the fellow have where he put his foot.” And everybody was fooled, because Paul came along and gave the answer, Abraham did not even want it, because he was looking for a City! And you know a City's coming. Not very nice to get all the thugs and mugs and all the junk going on, but this man couldn’t even live in a city where people serving you, oh brother. Terry told us a little about it, he told us a lot about it on Friday night it was great. We don’t even recognize we're being served by God tonight, but we are, today. Imagine 144,000 taking care of the Bride, in that lovely City, the Lamb on the Throne, God veiled in the Pillar of Fire above the Throne. We wouldn’t be suburbanites, phooey, we'd be urbanites. I could never figure why it was that I always kind of thought I was a little bit like Lot. I wanted to be near a city, I don’t want to be too far out. Then I get to thinking, the more that, really I am an urbanite. Farming is great if you want to get your hands dirty; I'd sooner have somebody else get their hands dirty, I kept mine clean. You can feel like that kind of a guy I am, but the thing is this, now a little more scriptural and perhaps than some are. 2. Now, I was just thinking of Sis. Goodman, she came all the way because she wasn’t afraid of dying, you got to die anyway, sometime, what’s the difference? But back in 1957 when Bro. Branham came to Lima, Ohio, just before he came, a Sis. Yarbrough phoned me. I think I told you this, from Bellingham, Washington. And she said, “Lee, will you pray for Clarence, because he is dying of cancer.” I said, “Hey, no, I won’t pray for him, Bro. Branham is coming to Lima, Ohio, and you can come here and Clarence can be prayed for. She said, “But, Lee, he is dying.” I said, “That’s all the more reason he’s going to die, anyway. Why doesn't he come here, he can die here. Like the lepers, you know, outside the gates of Samaria. He can come here, he can be healed.” She said, “You are right.” She put a mattress in the station wagon, threw the old boy, he walked inside, whatever it was, and he had faith to come for another reason. His little boy, seven years old or so, was dying of cancer, completely emaciated and …?... And Bro. Branham prayed for that boy in Bellingham, Washington, and he was healed that night. And Bro. Branham said, “Take him out and feed him.” And he ate greasy hamburgers on a cancerous full stomach. Yeck, ooh I can’t even stand the stuff with a good stomach and I can eat snacks and snails and puppy-dog-tails and nothing bothers me hardly. Greasy hamburgers. Kid felt like a million. So, Bro. Yarbrough came and he was the first one, in the first line, the first time. And Bro. Branham, he just froze, he drew back, his face black, like a shadow, and he said, “Shadow of death, cancer, you will die unless God does something for you.” Hey boy, that’s some kind of a greeting, I know that’s not Pearly City greetings, but it’s the kind of greeting the man needed. He just stumbled forward and took him by the hands and prayed a little prayer. That night he passed chunks of liver-like substance. The next morning his face was pink, he was perfectly healed. Where’s Lois Wingate? Lois sent me... now this is going to tell on my wife, and it really stinks, but I am a stinker. Lois sent me the loveliest birthday card this year of anybody. Honey, I thank you. I know it’s a bit on flattery, but kid, I love it. Keep flattering. She’s my twin sister, I am a few years older, but that’s the truth. 3. Now, I want to talk to you something that you have never heard before, and it may be a little surprising. You well know that I wrote the Church Age for Bro. Branham, because having read the script, having heard the Seals, I knew it would be less than compatible with an exposition that he actually gave us, which was so marvellous; to simply take a word by word treatise from the Ages when he added so much in the Seals. Which later turned out to be a blessing, because unfortunately, Bro. Branham died before I could rewrite the Seals for him; and I didn’t know why he was so terribly, terribly urgent. He knew he was going, but I didn’t. Anyway, we wrote the Church Ages in order to present to the people as much as we could, the reality of the ministry and the doctrine. 4. Now, Bro. Branham, purportedly I do not know, told Sidney Jackson of South Africa the book was ‘Thus Saith the Lord’. I have no reason to believe one way or the other. I do know that when Bro. Collins was agitated because he didn’t have a clue as far as I know as to the White Throne and the Second Resurrection, the Foolish Virgin and the whole thing. He was worried, because he was sure that Lee Vayle took advantage of Reverend William Branham, prophet of God and wrote what he wanted and Bro. Branham being such a gentleman would not refute it. I know that Becky went to him and said, “Daddy, can you go to heaven without being born again?” He said, “Why, no, daughter.” She said, “Well, Lee Vayle said that in the book.” Now, you know how much Becky knew what was in that book. I am not slamming anybody, listen kid you're dealing with old Lee Vayle up here. I don’t take any guff. The book was written according what Bro. Branham said. And if you'd like to have the churning in my stomach, the headaches I had; I was lying on a bench having started the book, then lying on a hard bench and rolling in agony and in terror, that’s how the book was written. Now, that book does not contain any mistakes on the grounds on which I am going to divert for one second so you'll get the picture. When I wrote ‘Twentieth Century Prophet’, Bro. Branham and I sat together, the witness that was there is now not living. As I read to Bro. Branham and he read beside me the Scriptures, he said, “Put a little point there, Lee,” he said, “That’s not quite right, we'll come back.” We went through the book and he said, (another point,) “That’s good,” he said, “and this could help here.” When I read the book to him in its entirety, I said, “Bro. Branham, what about that little thing back there you said to correct?” He said, “Forget it, It’s corrected down here.” Hear what I said? You really heard what I said? 5. Okay, listen to me; in the Church Age Book you will find… Now, we're going to deal with this number one, that in there I took from the passage of Ephesians, “By grace are you saved, through faith.” And grace means, ‘a free gift’. “By grace are you saved, through faith, and that not of yourself, it is the gift of God.” [Eph 2:8] The scholars admit that that which is a gift of God is grace. They make the author of the book redundant and I am a stickler, I do not believe in redundancy. I have been taught that you never use the same word twice in the sentence or, in a paragraph or in a page. That is why my vocabulary is so extensive and I watch myself. I try not even to leave the participles dangling or the prepositions out of place. 6. I could not truly accept what they said, though Bro. Branham later on I found having have read the passage where I had attributed the saving grace of God to a faith that was only in the Elect based upon Acts 13, particularly, where they who are ordained unto eternal life believed, but if you weren’t ordained you could not believe. Therefore, I took in 2 Thessalonians where It said, “All men have not the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ because they're reprobate.” I immediately drew my conclusion, before you could be born again, you would have to have a faith dropped in your heart by Almighty God. The book was written when Bro. Branham actually said, on a tape, “There are those who say, ‘that you have to have a supernatural faith to be saved’. Don’t you believe it, because, faith is represented by hyssop and hyssop grows in the cracks and crannies of walls and in any place you may find it.” So, this would sound like an error, but remember Bro. Branham taught on the ‘Stature of a Perfect Man’. 7. Now, the ‘Stature of a Perfect Man’ is 2 Peter 1, you'll find that the basic grace and virtue is faith. And you cannot have it unless you're baptized with the Holy Ghost, because it comes out of it. My doctrine was correct in the book according to Bro. Branham, but a slight misplacing, because it was corrected as you go down the line. You see what I mean? There is not a mistake in that book as far as doctrine is concerned, it is right. Believe me I sat with Bro. Branham… times myself as much as four and a half hours, at one time roughly eleven days, of all the time I could put in to get glimmerings of what I needed to know. He read the book more than once, there are those who would tell you, there’s a big mouth living in America which I have… forget what I said, the man’s a liar. He said, "Bro. Branham did not read the last chapter from any pages of that Church Age book." He doesn’t know what he is talking about, because there is a man in Riley that used too or does lead... Bro. Carpenter’s song service in Mesa, Arizona, who sat in the Ramada Inn with me and Bro. Branham, as I read the last chapter to bring to his attention what he seems to be saying to the people was that men like Luther and different ones, never had the baptism with the Holy Ghost. 8. Now, I said, “Bro. Branham, I want to ask you a question: were these men devoid of the Holy Ghost or, were they full of the Holy Ghost, because these men were messengers?” “Oh yes,” he said, “They had the Holy Ghost there’s no doubt.” Remember he said, “They had it in measure.” Right? So, they had the Holy Ghost for their day, there was no problem there. So, I read the book to him and poor old Bro. Riley, he later on apologized, he kept butting in as though he knew something. He knew nothing of what we were talking. So, Bro. Branham heard the chapter, this other man knew nothing about it, but therefore he being thought... thinking he being omniscient, which he wasn’t quite. Lois, you accept my sarcasm, you understand perfectly what I am talking about. My twin sister never lets me down, tax free. That guy was wrong a hundred percent. Bro. Branham not only heard, but he corrected, he read the last chapter and every word in that book. There is one bad, or a couple of typographical errors and one is… because, the book was sent to Pentecostal Publishing Press. And Bro. Branham said, “The prophet, in the former rain.” Pentecostals know only the ‘latter rain.’ Though I quoted the Scripture correctly, the ‘former rain’, the man put in ‘latter rain’. Now, listen to me, when that book came back from the printers in mine hand, the final addition, I told my wife, I said, “There’s a mistake in this book and I'll take you right to it.” I knew the man had put in ‘latter’ instead of ‘former’. 9. Now, we'll go a step further. Let’s talk about 1977. Nineteen hundred and seventy-seven is what Bro. Branham said could possibly by prediction be the end. In the book, it is stressed, “I am predicting, I am not prophesying.” So therefore, instantly, if you have any intellectual capacity whatsoever, based upon what you know of Bro. Branham what’s in the book, you would know that this man was not saying, ‘Thus Saith the Lord’, he was not prophesying. In there you will find the visions where he enumerated one through seven. You will also know that five of them have come to pass. Based on Bro. Branham’s calculation which was his own prediction, by the speed of which five had already been processed by God, it would be 1977, possibly. Only by, not a pure calculation, but a guess-timation, he was saying it could be. Later on he corrected himself and said, “Lee, things would have to be squeezed in pretty mightily to get there.” Also, Bro. Branham said, “You cannot see certain events full fulfilled, or great things fulfilled, until all the events are in.” 10. Now, notice the language in that book. In that book and I cannot quote it exactly right now, but I can quote you the parts that I want to quote you. And that is that little phrase after he said, “I am not prophesying, and I am predicting.” And enumerating these things the little phrase is, ‘by Divine revelation’. Now, I am going to tell you something: when I wrote ‘Twentieth Century Prophet’, there was certain phraseology I did not like. I would go back over and over to change it, and I couldn’t do it. In the Church Age book there was certain passages I wrote, I could not allow to be printed. I could not change for some reason why it was said, “By Divine inspiration.” And now, you sitting here, I won’t say too much, because I could be insulting you, and I don’t mean to. But look, if I have already told you, I have seven visions of which five came to pass, and two will come to pass. And you knew that every time I said, ‘Thus Saith the Lord’, or prophesied, there never was one iota of failure. Then I write in that book for Bro. Branham, or he writes it, putting all these into an equation and then saying, “This is a guess-timation,” I want to ask you the question: using the Divine revelation that God gives; I want to ask you, “What was the Divine revelation?” Now somebody tell me. Now, I don’t want to think you out, I don’t want to get you bombed out, but look kid this is serious. The Divine revelation were the seven visions! He never had more Divine revelations than that! You follow what I am saying? This has thrown everybody, it needed to be thrown. Because they thought it was being said, “Thus Saith the Lord, 1977.” It wasn’t! 11. You wonder why it’s in the book, I am not God. Understand what I am saying? There’s three types of people that Jesus mentions, the ‘prophet, the wise man, and the scribe’. The prophet is the living Word of God made manifest. He cannot be judged, because he is God to the people, because God is in him. And he is not as Terry’s former friend from British Columbia said, “As God, as God, as God.” (You like my sarcasm alone? Thank you dear, I knew you would, because you got guts). I'm not standing here as Lee Vayle. I am Lee Vayle! Jesus said, “Who sees me, has seen the Father.” And William Branham said, “When you see me, is just like when they said, when Jesus said, when you see me, you see the Father.” "Well, I don’t believe I can take that!" I am glad, you want to know why? It reduces the crowd. When I was a kid, and I am still a kid, my sister used to make the best caramel milk pie you ever tasted. And I could sit down and I saw that I got what I wanted, because I ate the whole thing before you got there. [laughter] New Jerusalem here comes a sheep like a hog. William Branham said what he said, and I believe it. 12. All right! I'm not God, there’s three classes of people; the prophet, the scribe, the wise man and the scribe. The prophet is the infallible Word of God, he's the living Word of God made manifest, he is God to the people, in him dwells God. You can put whatever measure you want, but Bro. Branham had to have the measure for this particular hour, for whatever role God was posing Himself in which was absolutely prophet, which was judge and so on. What is the ‘wise-man’? Now, I am going to flatter myself and Bro. Bell. Hey, Terry, good to see you! Flatter Terry! It’s not flattery, be honest, because if I am not honest, I am a deceiver. And if you believe me you'll burn, but I will burn extra, because I deceived you. The ‘wise-man’ is a man who can handle the Scripture, preferably known as a teacher. The ‘scribe’ is the man who only writes It down. Therefore, you see, nothing changes. All right! I took what Bro. Branham said, as ‘Thus Saith the Lord’, and I wrote in handling it as I was given leeway by God to handle that Word. And so therefore, in that book you have that picture of where it says, by ‘Divine Revelation’ and it has thrown many people a curve and this is scriptural. I did not do it on purpose. I knew perfectly in my mind what I meant when I wrote it, so did Bro. Branham. And ignorantly I thought anybody would just pick it up, because it was all there in front of you. Hey, I got six apples, I got six peaches, I got six oranges, I got six pears, makes wonderful marmalade, try it sometime. Take a couple of each and a cup of sugar to match, boil it and put in jars, it's fantastic. But, there’s something needed, it’s all laid out. See? 13. Now, maybe I got eight pears, I got six peaches and I got this, I'm supposed to take just one of each. Now, if I only got six peaches, six pears and six apples, I can’t have eight oranges. And I thought it was that simple! The divine revelation was the seven visions. Now, let me tell you, I have laid open to you as I have never done in any public office, or any public group. What I am telling you now, to my knowledge there is absolutely nothing in that book that is in error. Because, even the little thing that was in there, corrected itself absolutely by the Truth, that when you are born again, you do have that measure of faith. I misplaced a little bit but, the prophet completely over looked it on the grounds of how he corrected the ‘Twentieth Century Prophet’. “Lee, just leave it, don’t touch it, it’s made manifest down here.” [End of message] Comments on the Church Age Book (6289A) - Page PAGE \* MERGEFORMAT 3